Bandaids

Katy Perry strips back the gloss on "Bandaids", a pop rock ballad released November 6, 2025 through Capitol Records. The song marks her first new music following the 2024 album 143 and leans into acoustic guitar-driven confession. Perry co-wrote the track with Amanda Ibanez; production came from Justin Tranter, Sean Cook, Russ Chell, and Eren Cannata. It later appeared on her 2026 compilation The Ones That Got the Plays.

Lyrically, the song uses a bandage as a metaphor for inadequate fixes after a breakup, a bullet wound that no simple patch can heal. Critics were split: Rolling Stone called it "Perry's most mature vocal performance in years," while Pitchfork praised a "welcome return to songwriting substance." The Guardian gave three stars, noting the metaphor strains but the melody sticks. Commercially, it reached the top 40 in Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela, but did not enter the US Billboard Hot 100. In Brazil, it earned Gold certification for 20,000 units.

The music video, co-directed by Perry and Christian Breslauer, turned heads with a horror-comedy concept inspired by the Final Destination franchise. Perry survives a falling air conditioner, a runaway shopping cart, and a swarm of bees as she goes about her day after a breakup. The video became a viral TikTok meme, with users making their own "surviving the breakup" accident compilations. The chorus line "put a bandaid on a bullet wound" entered common usage in online relationship discourse. Perry first performed the song live on The Lifetimes Tour in Lyon, France, on November 7, 2025, one day after its release. Covers by Maisie Peters and Meet Me @ The Altar have since surfaced.[edit]